Grrr Google

In a case of biting the hand that feeds me, I'm going to take a moment to complain about Google. Well not about the company per se. It's my go-to search engine. It's my standard email. It's also my favorite place to search for scholarly information. And obviously it houses my blogs. It also used to be my RSS compiler. Used to be. Google announced this week that they will be shutting down their incredibly useful Reader function in July. And I've grown to depend on my Reader. Seriously depend. So I'm not looking forward to finding a new compiler to use.

The  problem is I subscribe to a little over 120 blogs and tumblr sites. That's a lot of posting. In a full day there are at least 45-60 new articles that post for me. Some blogs are daily, some post a couple times a week, and some post much less frequently. I've grown used to a simple format that allows me to see only the new articles available and then clears them out when I've finished reading. It makes my internet time more organized and happy. And organized and happy are my favorite things.

Thankfully, Google has put into a place a transition program so I can move to a new compiler but so far I haven't found any that offer me the same efficiency. Many of them have odd UIs. Or perhaps I'm just bristling at the change for format. I don't need a tablet or smart phone based reader and that seems to be where most services are focused. I want something that lets me read the articles without clicking on them, and then lets me know which ones I've read that morning. I want something that displays all my new articles in one place. I want something that is simple and easy to use. In other words, I want my Reader. If you couldn't tell I'm a little frustrated with this decision of Google's. I understand they are trying to pare down, but I just don't want it to be here. Grrr.

Underground New York Public Library

The Undiscovered Self by Carl Jung

As a librarian and a lover of books, I love to see other people reading. As I keep hearing about the death of books and how less people are reading, I keep a look out for people who are bucking the trend. I'm a huge fan of paper books and although I have no issues with e-readers,  I think that you lose some of the connection to the book. Plus when I see a reader, I often try to peek to see what book they are enjoying. That's tougher with an e-reader.

(Left) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, 

(Right) The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Because of this love for paper books, I've become a huge fan of the blog, the Underground New York Public Library. The blogger (Ourit Ben-Haim) is a photographer who travels the New York City subway, taking pictures of people she finds reading. The Reading Riders are then posted along with the title of the book they were reading. It's a fantastic blog that offers people watching, reading suggestions, and a reminder that print books are not yet dead.

 Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

The blogger is a street photographer and most of the subjects are not aware that they are being photographed. I love how absorbed in their books they seem. When a photo cannot be taken unaware, the blogger is careful to explain the project and then ask the person to go back to reading. Once they are engrossed again, that's when the shot gets taken. It's all about catching a reader in that moment of engagement with the book. They always look so much more relaxed than the other riders. It's a wonderful image of the diversity of readers and their books of choice. Plus I come away from this blog with a ton of new books to read. Perfect.

Great Short Works of Dostoyevski

When Life Gives You...er Bananas...

You make banana bread. I had the day off work today for a beautiful four day weekend. And I had four bananas that were just about dead. At least they were well past the point where Jeff and I would eat them. For the record I like mine with still a bit of green to them. So I decided to do what millions before me have done when they have overripe bananas. I made banana bread.

I've been reading a blog called Eat Me, Delicious for years now. The author regularly posts vegetarian recipes that make my mouth water. And the baking ones make me want to dust off a taupe and become a pastry chef. So when I went looking for banana bread recipes to try, I started with Eat Me, Delicious first. I thought I had remembered a chocolate banana bread that would be fun to try. I found the recipe and tried it. Not only is the bread easy to make but it's incredibly tasty as well.

The recipe can be found here and other than the buttermilk and the cocoa powder, most of the ingredients were already in the house. Assembly took less than half an hour so it was quick that way. There was a ton of actual baking time (70 minutes in total) but by the fifty minute mark I was already drooling with the great smell. It's a rich bread. Almost dessert-like. The chocolate and banana are well balanced. It was even more amazing right out of the oven when the chocolate chips were still melty. I'll make this more often. So tasty.

Mini-break

I just wanted to let you know that I'm on a slight mini-break from the blog this week and probably part of next week. I've been packing up my office and the library to move to a different floor in the building and just haven't been in the mood to write. Sorry about that. I'll try to get back into the swing of things by mid-Wednesday. Hopefully with something a little more entertaining than an apology about why I'm not writing.

Thanks for reading. I'll be back soon.

Big Round Numbers

In May of 2008 I started a blog with the idea of sharing what I was interested in. I wrote about whatever struck my fancy, and still do. At the time I had two readers, my sister and my friend Josh. I didn’t go around making the blog public and I certainly didn’t do any marketing of it (still don’t, I’m terrible at marketing myself). What I did do was make a promise to myself that I would try to be consistent with it. I’ve tried to write at least four days a week. Some weeks it happens, some weeks it doesn’t.

And in those two years I can track my history. I know what was going on in my life on those days. I read back and remember parts of my life that I forgot about, magic moments, tough times, interesting ideas, and current obsessions. And they are fascinating to me. I’ve been pretty blessed throughout all this.

But what makes me really blessed is that my two early readers are still there, still reading but now there are a number of others that have joined them. Some of you are friends that I’ve known for years that are willing to put up with my rambling. Some of you found me through other blog mentions and have stayed. Some of you have become friends through this blog. And I’m blessed because of all of you. You are what keep me writing. I’ve wanted to offer you something new every day. I’ve wanted to let you know about what fascinates me. I’ve wanted to share parts of my life and you’ve been wonderfully accepting. You’ve read, you’ve shared your knowledge with me, and you’ve been supportive and amazing.

Today is my 500th post. We always seem to celebrate the big round numbers and I’m pretty happy with this one. Five hundred times I’ve sat down and wrote about something. Some of the posts were good and I’m proud of those. Some of them were silly or rambling. Some were just plain bad. And some of them were hard to write. But you guys were there and I knew that. For 500 entries, you’ve been a part of my life. And for that I Thank You.

In honor of my 500th post, I’m taking a bit of a break. As you may or may not know I’ll be traveling next week and won’t have access to a computer. So sadly there will be no posting for at least the week. But when I come back I’ll have plenty of pictures and excitement to share. I hope you all will stick around.

You Can't Have Just One

Okay if you thought I was insane before, today I proved that I'm certifiable. How you ask? Well today, for no other reason than that it seemed like a good idea at the time, I started a new blog. Yeah another blog. Apparently they are addictive. You start one and then suddenly it snowballs into...well...my current count is four. They're like potato chips, you can't have just one.

My new endeavour is just beginning so no need to check it out quite yet. But this one has a goal. It's called Weekly Walks and I'll be using it to showcase photos, descriptions, and my thoughts about the hikes I'm planning to take weekly. As part of my ankle rehabilitation I decided that I need a bit of a motivator to get out and walk. This blog is my answer.

My hope is to post at least once or twice a week, so this won't be a regular thing. But I hope to fill it with pictures, most likely of animals, birds, or scenery. Something new, something exciting. Did I mention I'm insane?

I'm a Follower

First and foremost you need to know that I'm a web-junkie. The internet is a bit like crack to me. I'm completely hooked. I jump from website to website, often losing track of my original path as I fall further and further down the rabbit hole. It's really a wonder that I get anything done. One discovery leads to another and then another until hours have gone by and I have no idea where the time has gone. I read at least 30 webcomics daily and my list of blogs that I read grows by the day.

It used to take me way too long to keep track of all those, particularly since so many blogs only update occasionally. But I would check each daily to see whether they had posted anything new. That is until I discovered the magic button that took away all that lost time. Of course I'm talking about the Follow button. If you aren't following the blogs you read, you're really wasting tons of time. For those of you with Gmail/Google accounts, this is as simple as logging into to Google and going to your dashboard. That has your RSS feed that will allow you to see which blogs have updated and when. No more checking needlessly.

I started by following the blogspot websites. They were easy. I would just click the follow button and add them to my list. But I was so frustrated that I couldn't follow other blogs. That I still had to manually check them. That is until I discovered the add feature. As long as a blog offers an RSS feed, it can be followed. It doesn't matter which platform it falls under. You simply need to go to your dashboard, click on the add button by the blogs you follow, and insert the URL. Done. Now I only have one or two sites (those without feeds) that I have to check manually.

I can't even begin to tell you how much time this simple tool has saved me. No more hunting to see when people update. No more going to websites needlessly. Instead just one click on the blog name (or the post name for those only interested in the one listing) and you're there. So what can I say, I'm a follower. But it makes my web addiction just a little more tolerable.

Poetry Friday

My little sister Emilie told me last weekend that she loves being one of the few family members who reads this blog because she gets quite a few shout-outs. And while that's not the main reason I mention her frequently (that's mostly because I love her and love spending time with her), she is correct that she's one of my only family members who reads this. My dad will check in occasionally but a lot of my family is simply not that computer literate or perhaps not that interested (for my own ego I'm going with the computer literate one :-) ).

So today's post is for my older sister who won't get a chance to read this. And no worries on that. I'm actually just happy that she reminded me of this poem that I can share. We are both Pablo Neruda fans, particularly his love poems, and this is her favorite. So without further ado.

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

Contrariwise

I've been thinking of getting a tattoo for the last decade or so now. I love the idea of etching something onto myself that I can keep as a permanent reminder. I've known what I want, I just haven't figured out where to put it. A while ago I created the design, based off the title of this blog, but I keep holding back because I want to find the perfect place to put it. As you know, once it's on there, it stays.

So knowing that I was interested in tattoos and that I love books, my little sister pointed out the website Contrariwise to me. For those of you who don't know, the title is a reference to Alice in Wonderland. "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” The website shows off book-related and literary tattoos, like the Alice in Wonderland themed beauty below.

Based on the John Tenniel drawing.

Others contain only words like this great section of a poem (A Psalm of Life) by Longfellow below.

The tattoos run the gambit from a simple word to elaborate pictures, often taken from the illustration or simply made up. But all of them are book related. Most of them I would be more than happy to have adorning my body. A couple of the tattoos have led me to seek out new authors and books. I am fascinated by the variety of styles and by the number of authors represented. A fantastic site with some inspiring and fun tattoos.

A wild thing from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

General Housekeeping

I spent part of this evening updating my list of webcomics and blogs that I read. So if you're looking for something new to read check any of them out. They all have my stamp of approval. If you have questions about them or want to discuss, either shoot me an email or leave a comment. As always I love to hear from you.

By the way I have no idea why some of the blogs and comics are highlighted. Any ideas? Those aren't the new ones I added and they aren't just the google based ones. Hmmm.

People of Walmart

Now I don't shop at Walmart. I know too many small business owners to shop at what my family refers to as the evil empire. But after checking out People of Walmart (thanks for the suggestion Em), there are other reasons not to shop there.

People of Walmart is a blog dedicated to displaying readers' pictures of people they find in Walmarts. There are the poorly dressed,

the crazies,

and the "what were they thinking?".

I'm not brave enough to post a picture of the mostly dressed although there were plenty of those. It's a mix of some of the oddest pictures you'll ever see. And almost all of them are funny and sad and frightening.

Jeff and I spent part of the weekend, while recovering from shopping, clicking through the many pages. I was both humored and scared by the end. I'm amazed people leave the house looking like that but I'm also a bit scared for society in general. There are some odd people out there. And most of them are shopping in Walmart.

Epicute

It's not often that I find a website that combines two of my very favorite things in the world. In this case, food and cuteness. I've been slowly gathering blogs that make me incredibly happy. This particular one is a favorite. I'm not sure how I found it. It was mentioned on one of the blogs I read but when I went back I couldn't find the reference.

Epicute is a blog created by a young woman named Sonya who searches the web to find some of the most amazingly creative and cute food items that people are making out there. There are cupcakes, candies, cakes, bento boxes, and more. She posts almost twice daily and each image is just a bit of sweetness.

If that image didn't hook you, how about this one. Yep, those little adorable bears are made out of sugar.

And I have to throw in one of Sakurako Kitsa's Bento Boxes. I had seen these before but they are way too amazing not to share.

One warning though, if you don't crave sweets after reading this blog, there is seriously something wrong with you.

Terrible Yellow Eyes

I know I did a blog post for this over at Yet Another Children's Book Blog but it is just too good not to share everywhere. Terrible Yellow Eyes is the brainchild of Cory Godbey, and is a blog tribute to the amazing Maurice Sendak and particularly his book Where the Wild Things Are. Cory has invited various artists to create artwork based on the book which are then posted to the site. The responses have been astounding. There are some downright amazing contributions to the blog and everything is so varied and fabulous. As a side note, the blog just stepped out of the blogosphere and became a gallery show at Gallery Nucleus in California.

When I was growing up I remember reading Where the Wild Things Are over and over. In High School when I was asked to translate a story into Japanese, I chose Sendak's book. I was fascinated with Max's ability to sail off into the unknown. There is a moment when his room becomes a forest that as a child I always wished would happen to my room. So this blog is of special interest to me. Plus with the movie opening soon and hopefully a resurgence in interest in the book (as if Where the Wild Things Are has ever gone out of style) this will be even more interesting. By the way I'm not above eating crow. When I first did a post about movies made out of picture books I mentioned that I was not particularly excited about this adaptation. But the more that I have seen of the visuals, the more excited I am. I only hope that it will keep the tone of the book unlike another picture book/film that has come out this past month.

But my griping aside, Terrible Yellow Eyes is one of the most beautiful tributes I have ever seen to a book. Each piece is beautiful and interesting in its own way. There are paper cut-outs, dioramas, oil, acrylic, watercolor.... on into infinity. The variations of theme and medium are stunning in themselves. If you have ever enjoyed this book, or just like incredible art, check out this site. And thanks Cory. This was a fantastic idea and has become a thing of beauty.

Forgotten Bookmarks

One of the interesting things about blogger is that when you hit the main page, there is a listing of blogs of note. I don't check them very often but when I do I'm always rewarded with an incredibly interesting site. They do their homework and only seem to highlight blogs that are updated regularly and with unusual material. Yesterday after I posted and logged off I clicked through the blogs of note. And found what could be my new favorite blog.

Forgotten Bookmarks is an unusual blog in that the site features objects and items left in books. The writer works in a used bookstore and checks each of the books for left materials. And there are some interesting things left behind in books. I have not been through the entire archive yet but I will. There are postcards from family members, letters of apology, photographs, recipes, and tons of other interesting bits of ephemera. The blog's author always includes both a photo of the item found and the cover of the book it was found it.

Some of these items are pretty old, going back to the 1800s. The librarian in me is just fascinated by this collection of odds and ends history. As a reader I'm always excited to find notes or dedications in the used books I pick up. I have found the occasional library slip in some of my library books and find that fascinating. But this is a wonderful hodge-podge of personal items that somehow got overlooked. Some are old, some are new. Some are very personal, some are just advertisements. And of course even more interesting is which books they get left in. Below is a great example. The boar picture is actually a card that used to be included in cigarette packs.

I am truly excited about this blog. I've always loved found art and this has something of that appeal. I know that I tend to use whatever I have lying around as a bookmark. I'm not sure if I've left things in books although I try to check. But there is something incredibly personal and interesting about what other people just happen to use and then forget. I'll be adding this to my virtual bookmarks and checking out the great history that people have left behind. For those readers, librarians, or historians out there, here is an odd little blog that's definitely one to check out.

Jeremy Tankard is Awesome

A couple weeks ago I did a review for Yet Another Children's Book Blog of Jeremy Tankard's fantastic children's book, Grumpy Bird. I had loved the characters of this little story, enjoyed the dialogue, and absolutely adored Jeremy's art style. It is a wonderful book and I was happy to say some nice things about it.

Two days or so after the review was posted I got an email from Jeremy. He said how much he'd liked the review and asked if he could send me a poster and a sketch. Honestly I was just excited that he had read the review but I was thrilled that he wanted to send me something. He also linked to me on his blog.

So yesterday during work, Jeff called me to tell me that I had a big envelope in the mail. And that it came from Tankard illustration. That was about two. I could hardly wait the two and a half hours to head home and see what he had sent. And they were awesome. I got two posters, one primarily from Grumpy Bird (below, although the color is a bit off).

The second is an image from the poster of Boo Hoo Bird, Jeremy's newest. It had four panels and wouldn't fit in the frame for a picture so you get to see my favorite image, although not the one he signed.

But my favorite was this sketch (below) that he created for me. I went out today to buy frames and hope to have at least the sketch and the poster up on the wall in my studio this weekend. So this is a gigantic public thank you to Jeremy Tankard and a huge endorsement of his books (Grumpy Bird, Boo Hoo Bird, and Me Hungry!). Thanks Jeremy!!! You are too kind!

Let Them Eat Cake

This past week one of my favorite webcomics Unshelved pointed me towards a new blog. And this one is downright hilarious. I haven't laughed this hard since I found Fail Blog. The new one, which has already been bookmarked, is Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Horribly, Hilariously Wrong. And similar to train wrecks, you simply can't look away. 

The site is dedicated entirely to terrible cakes. (Well, there are some amazingly pretty cakes, but they are few and far between.) Sometimes the cakes are homemade, and the mistakes can be overlooked. But a lot of the times these are professional cakes done by professional cake designers. And they are awful. Some are completely incoherent, some are just in horrible taste. You have to wonder what the people ordering the cakes and the bakers were thinking with some of them. I haven't read through the entire archive yet mostly because my stomach can't take anymore laughing right now. But I'll get through it. 

Here is just one of the horribly scary cakes, and this is one of the tamer ones. If you need a laugh, this blog is for you. 

Epic Fail

For a while I've been reading Icanhascheezburger.com. Although I cringe at the language (English majors everywhere are whimpering), these are just too funny. For those who haven't been, readers submit pictures of their cats and other animals along with funny captions. They make my day a little brighter. And I've even got Jeff reading them. 

So today we spent a little time with the website and noticed that they had other tabs at the top. One tabs had nostalgic items, toys and shows from my childhood. Another had funny images of dogs with captions. And our favorite was Fail Blog. This has reader submissions of pictures and videos that are just wrong. A sign that may not say what they thought it said. Spelling errors on tattoos. And just general human stupidity. I laughed until I cried. My stomach hurt. I'm still working through the archives but this is just hilarious stuff. 

One of my favorite pictures.

And here is my favorite video so far. 

He Has The Power!!!

No, not He-man with the power of Greyskull. BigRedKitty and the power of his horde. I have several blogs that I visit every day. They are just part of my morning ritual to start my day out right. All fun, all interesting. One of my favorites is BigRedKitty. He's just so funny and informative. I'm not even a hunter, although I do play World of Warcraft. So I was shocked when BRK discovered my little corner of the net. And then more surprised when he linked to it. I'm honored!!! /salute  

My husband got me started reading BRK since he plays a hunter. He was picking up all sorts of great tips and enjoying the great writing. He showed me one of BRK's Daniel stories and I was hooked. I don't always follow all his pet advice, but as a warlock some of his tactics are useful. Minions are close enough to pets. For those of you interested I play an Affliction warlock. I love the fact that even if things run away, they still die. /evil laugh

But the reason I say he has the power is this. I traditionally get 10 or so hits a day to my site. I tend to jump from topic to topic, not good for building up a steady audience. Since BRK's link this morning, I've had almost 1050. Behold the power of one man's words. Now for any of you visiting, remember he warned you. I don't really talk about WOW much. I mention my first two trips through Zul'Farrak. I talk about going into Stratholme. And I celebrate the fact I just turned 70 (finally). But I play casually. I've been addicted for stretches but WOW playing competes with my reading and, I have to admit, sometimes it loses. 

So this is big thank you to BRK. Thanks for taking some time out of your morning to see who your readers are. Thanks for writing one of the more consistently entertaining blogs I read each day. And thank everyone for stopping by. BRK and his horde are a force to be reckoned with. Thank goodness he uses his powers for good instead of evil. (or at least I think. hmmm)  Maybe I'll have to talk a little more WOW. But then again Wrath comes out in less than two weeks. I might just be too busy playing. 

 

Morning Rituals

Here I am at work just starting my day and I realized how slowly I actually start. When I first arrive at work I need to make coffee and grab water. Can't function without the coffee, even though it's decaf. Next I sit down to read the news. Jeff taught me to always read the news first. That way I get the depressing stuff out of the way and can focus on the fun stuff. I read Google News, CNN, BBC, The Des Moines Register, and KCCI. By that time I'm sufficiently depressed. But part of the job so I get it out of the way early.

Now the fun stuff. Over the last couple years I have found about 30 or so blogs that I follow. And all of those get read every morning. Some post everyday, some don't. I have art blogs, writer blogs, WOW blogs, animal blogs, and some that are just strange stuff. But they put me in the right mood for the day. It's all about learning and fun. So every morning I go through them at work, feeling slightly guilty for wasting time, but not enough to actually stop. And truth be told I normaly only waste about an hour that way. I know I'm lucky that my job allows me that flexibility. If I had a different job I wouldn't be able to start my day this way.

But I just have to point out some of the most recent editions, just in case anyone is looking for a fun new blog.

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. (a blog about books) http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/

Curious Expeditions http://curiousexpeditions.org/ (interesting history that makes you go hmmm)

Cabinet of Wonders http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/ (mechanical history told through pictures. Plenty of learning and great photography here)

And Roadside Scholar. http://www.roadsidescholar.com/ (because I love fun art)

Just some new ones that haven't made it onto my profile yet. But all of these make my morning just a little more interesting.